Author Archives: Zeb Welborn

About Zeb Welborn

Defining Success Podcast, 19th Hole Media, Welborn Media, The Tutoring Solution

Episode 105: Create Moments that Matter | Andy Hayes from Plum Deluxe

Andy Hayes from Plum Deluxe Create Moments that Matter

Andy Hayes

Andy Hayes is the founder of Plum Deluxe.  Plum Deluxe is the website that helps you create moments that matter. We believe that the key to living a life you love is all about making time every day for great moments. From a mindful minute with yourself to special occasions shared with friends and family, Plum Deluxe has fresh ideas for living the good life.

Andy’s mother passed away from cancer and once she was diagnosed she decided to “live the good life.”  And his website, Plum Deluxe is devoted to helping people live the good life.  Learn how Andy is helping others to create moments that matter.

When Plum Deluxe started, they focused on travel.  When he started he listened to what people were telling him about how to create revenue for his blog.  Eventually, he learned how to market and promote his blog by himself and did a great job doing it.

Plum Deluxe partners with sponsors, does some affiliate marketing, planning community events, and selling tea by creating a tea of the month club.

Events are a tough business to be in because people in different cities want different things.

People really appreciate that he gives them the opportunity to choose by learning about something new in a safe way.  The Plum Deluxe newsletter is also an award-winning newsletter.

Create Moments that Matter Andy Hayes from Plum Deluxe on the Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn

Plum Deluxe

Shout Outs:

Success Quotes:

  • “There is a million ways for every business to thrive so you have to find yours.”
  • “Go try things and see what does work and what doesn’t work.”
  • “The thing that people crave the most … is connection.”
  • “You should never go cheap when you’re buying luggage and sheets.”
  • “Success is defining a goal that would make you feel good about where you are in achieving that.”

Learn More:

Visit Plum Deluxe for more information about Andy, Plum Deluxe or Creating Moments that Matter.

Plum Deluxe Create Moments that Matter

Plum Deluxe

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Episode 104: The Travelers Guide to Wisdom | Host of the Travel Wisdom Podcast Ladan Jiracek

Ladan Jiracek with the Mechanical Leech Team

Ladan Jiracek

Ladan Jiracek is the host of the Travel Wisdom Podcast where he interviews entrepreneurs and successful people about how travel has changed their outlook on life.  He’s currently living in Dresden, Germany going to school for Nanobiophysics and has traveled to more than 80 countries.  Ladan is trying to teach people that traveling can be much more than just having fun. That people can learn valuable life lessons from traveling and he’s working to show others how traveling can lead to a more fulfilling and successful life.

The show is essentially that travel speeds up the wisdom that you earn in your life. By going out and getting vastly different experiences than what you are normally used to, you grow as a person in ways such as social skills, stress management, dating, language learning, and many other skills that ultimately make you a better person.

At the end of new experiences in completely new places one comes back seemingly wiser than those they left behind. This can translate to improvements in business, career, personal relationships, problem solving, and generally empathy toward others viewpoints.

Ladan has interviewed many very interesting guests in the field of travel, working abroad, dating abroad, making passive income, how travel helps entrepreneurship, and many more topics. The guests have all talked about how their lives were very heavily influenced by having new experiences and doing new things such as those during travel. The world is vastly different if you reach outside of your immediate area and doing so can help you in innumerable ways in life.

He also talks about ways to be able to travel. Things like travel hacking and making the most of your money while you’re abroad are very important to make sure you do not come back in debt. Subjects such as paying for your trip, what to pack, where to stay, how to move, what to wear, learning languages, and many other things are covered. In this way you can learn from the mistakes of others to save yourself time and money. Their tips and wisdom can also help you save time, energy and money while planning your stay abroad.

The last thing he talks about is funny and interesting experiences that happened to him or his guests. There are many very amusing stories that are worth retelling. Some also serve as lessons as what to do or what not to do.

This podcast is aimed towards those that have or are thinking about backpacking, taking a year off, working abroad, studying abroad, or anybody else seeing new places. Although it mostly focuses on making the first step for beginners, even the most experienced travelers will have much to learn and share with this podcast.

Ladan has travelled to over 80 countries and they include such colorful areas such as Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia, Rwanda, and former Soviet Georgia.

Ladan Jiracek from the Travel Wisdom Podcast

Travel Wisdom Podcast

You can subscribe to the podcast at:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-wisdom-podcast/id911287989?mt=2

You can also visit the site under construction at
www.travelwisdompodcast.com

Ladan is the host of the Travel Wisdom Podcast.  He’s currently in school in Dresden, Germany studying Nanobiophysics.  He has won numerous entrepreneurial awards and is considering buying a hostel in Germany.

Shoutouts:

  • Spencer Shaw – Business Growth Podcast
  • Daniel Ryan Spaulding
  • John Corcoran
  • Mike Brown
  • Turner Barr – Around the World in 80 Jobs

Quotes:

  • “If you have a podcast, it changes everything.”
  • “You’re in the Mzungu tribe.  The white man tribe.”
  • “If you’re doing something that you talk peoples ears off with than you’re doing the right thing.”
  • “You have to do something that the market allows.”
Ladan Jiracek from the Travel Wisdom Podcast on the Defining Success Podcast

Ladan Jiracek

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Episode 103: Unstoppable Success | Dr. Antipas Harris

Dr. Antipas Harris Unstoppable Success

Dr. Antipas Harris

There are so many people who want to succeed but are often discouraged or are simply uninspired. As a university professor, Dr. Antipas Harris sees this problem, often, among his students. He wrote, Unstoppable Success, 7 Ways to Flourish in Your Boundless Potential to encourage young people to maximize their boundless potential to flourish and to achieve values-based success.

In this episode, Dr. Antipas and I talk about the seven traits successful people have and how important integrity is in everything you do.

According to Dr. Antipas Harris, there are seven values that lead to success:

  1. Faith – People who experience success are typically people who have some form of faith.  Faith in a worldly sense, but also faith in themselves and the future.
  2. Vision – Vision is the target to help you know what it is you want to achieve.
  3. Persistence – There are always going to be challenges, but those who are successful are able to overcome those challenges through persistence.
  4. Humility – Humble people can stop looking at the big picture and look at the simple things in life.
  5. Education – Education means to become wise with the information that we gain.  Education has to be holistic.  The gathering of information and the developing of skills and how to apply that learning in ones life.
  6. Making the Right Connections – Connecting with the right people makes a difference in helping successful people become successful.
  7. Integrity – It’s important that we ground our success in honesty.

Shout Outs

  • John Maxwell –
  • The Aquabats – Lobsters in a Bucket

Unstoppable Success by Dr. Antipas Harris

Quotes:

  • “If you don’t have a clear vision, you don’t know where you’re going.”
  • “You don’t just stumble upon success, it has to be intentional.”
  • “Challenges are inevitable, but defeat is optional.”
  • “There’s always more to learn.”
  • “Don’t be a know-it-all.”
  • “Read as much as you can, even outside of your expertise.”
  • “No one who is successful achieved that by themselves.”
  • “What is the legacy we leave behind once it’s all over.”
  • “I am where I’m supposed to be right now in my life.”
  • “Success is becoming who one is created to become.”
  • “Success has many paths.”
Unstoppable Success by Antipas Harris

Unstoppable Success

Dr. Antipas Harris is the author of Unstoppable Success.

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Episode 102: Passionate Blogging Leads to Success | Ricky Potts

Passionate blogging leads to success. Ricky Potts is an extremely busy guy who has a lot of passions.  He started his personal blog not too long ago and has been able to generate 40,000 – 60,000 unique views on his blog every month.  He’s also leveraged his blog writing to create multiple opportunities for himself and his career including becoming the Digital Communications Manager for Troon Golf, a contributor to DiscountTeeTimes.com, and Relentless Beats.  He’s passionate about craft beers, golf, electronic dance beats, and blogs about them all.  Learn how passionate blogging led to his success.

Ricky Potts is the Digital Communications Director at Troon Golf in Scottsdale, Arizona

Ricky Potts

Ricky Potts is the Digital Communications Manager for Troon, passionate blogger, total beer snob, music fanatic, weekend golfer, runner and an all around opinionated realist.

Troon Golf is the largest golf management company in the world and Ricky got
connected with Troon Golf through a company he previously worked at
called, Imavex.   Troon Golf reached out to him to ask him to become their Digital Communications Manager and he jumped on the opportunity.

Ricky writes for Discount Tee Times, a unique reservation system in its 20th year of business, catering to the needs of the golfing community. They offer discounts of 20-60% off the posted rate for play today, tomorrow and up to 60 days in advance at over 100 championship courses throughout Arizona and Nevada.

He also writes for Relentless Beats which is Arizona’s longest running and most influential global dance music force.

He also created 1,001 bottles of beer where he writes on numerous craft beers he’s tried.

And, he’s the owner of the Google+ golf community and host of the weekly Friday Foursome.

Zeb Welborn, Ricky Potts, John Hakim and The Social Golf Course

Shout Outs:

  • DJ Eric Prydz
  • Kris Strauss
  • DJ Tiesto
  • Paul Oakenfold

Success Quotes:

  • “If I got one person to read one blog post than that entire blog post was worth writing.”
  • “Success is what you make it.”
  • “Go figure out what it’s going to take to make you successful and do that.”
  • “I can’t imagine not being the happiest person on the planet.”
Ricky Potts discusses passionate blogging in Episode 102 of the Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn

Ricky Potts

 

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Episode 101: Tribal Marketing | Daryl Urbanski

In Episode 101 of the Defining Success Podcast, Daryl Urbanski shares his entrepreneurial journey and discusses the importance of tribal marketing.  Tribal marketing is a marketing strategy that attempts to create social communities centered around a product or service.

Daryl Urbanski on Tribal Marketing on the Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn

Daryl Urbanski

Daryl Urbanski is a #1 Bestselling Business Author, Business Coach, Martial Artist, Tribal/Database Marketer, Entrepreneur, & Student Of Life.

Daryl focuses heavily on direct response campaigns and has experienced a lot of success.  His first endeavor was an email marketing campaign designed to get a job in Canada while he was still in High School.

He had some early experience with alternative energy, traveled to Japan to teach English, worked as a freelancer and then started experimented with passive income.

Ancient Secrets of Lead Generation is Daryl Urbanski’s best selling book

Influencers:

  • Michael Gerber
  • Jim Rohn
  • James Michener

According to Daryl, the biggest mistake many entrepreneurs make is:

  • Not Getting a Mentor
  • Not Surrounding Yourself with the Right People
  • Poor Time Management

Tribal marketing focuses on creating small groups of people and creating specific products for them to become more successful.  Working constantly to continually create value for people.

Daryl also believes in surrounding yourself with wolves instead of gazelles.

Daryl Urbanski author of The Ancient Secrets of Lead Generation

Daryl Urbanski

Success Quotes:

  • “The ultimate reason for setting goals is to entice you to become the person it takes to achieve them.” — Jim Rohn
  • “Sometimes you need to make the mistake to learn the lesson.”
  • “Do more.”
  • “Success is being able to do what you want, where you want, with who you want, with the price and terms you want.”
  • “Success is whatever it means to you.”
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Episode 77: Thriving Out of the Recession | Richard McKinnon, President of System 1 Interiors

Richard McKinnon of System 1 InteriorsRichard McKinnon is the owner and President of System 1 Incorporated. Because of Richard’s business sense, he realizes the importance on people to people interactions. That and advice from his father have helped him and his business get through the recession and thrive.

System 1 Interiors specializes in interior home remodeling including acoustic ceiling removal, plaster ceiling resurfacing, recessed lighting and interior & exterior painting. System 1 has been the leader in Acoustic Ceiling removal in southern California for over 30 years.

System 1 Interiors, Acoustic ceiling removal in southern California.

Zeb’s Take

He is a good friend of mine. Richie and I have known each other forever. He’s a really good guy. I’ve always been impressed with him. Basically, he was responsible for his entire family after his dad passed away and the business itself. He was able to overcome all of that and build a better stronger business. I’ve been working for Richie since the beginning of 2012.

The thing I want to touch on is the recession and how it contributes to business. In Richard’s mind he thinks that was a blessing. It was a good experience because he was able to take his business and lean it up, learn to make it more efficient, and that made his business ultimately better. He learned a lot of life lessons too; business lessons; what not to do, what to do. He really carved out a niche and now that his business is doing extremely well he has a much better understanding of his business. He runs a tight ship.

On more of a grand scale, I think, a recession really provides an opportunity. When you’re in a bull market and people are doing well in the economy, people look at the system in the wrong way. I’ve been involved with a few businesses where their question is, what’s the return on investment? They look at everything as numbers, and people like Richard and myself understand it’s not just a numbers game. It’s taking that extra step. Richard was on his way home when he got a call to do a job in Malibu, and even though he didn’t want to do it, he did, and it ended up saving his business. Those are the opportunities that you can’t value on a piece of paper. What ends up happening is people end up cutting those expenditures. They think, it’s going to cost this much in gas it takes this much time, it’s not an appropriate expenditure, let’s not do that. They miss out on this huge job, three months of business. They’re looking at numbers and not people and doing right by people. People look at numbers to tell the story of a business, but they can never take the place of the people to people interactions.

I’m going to work as hard as I can to make introductions, meet as many people, expose people to my business and add as much value and to genuinely help and be of service to people. If I looked at everything from a financial perspective, a balance sheet, whether or not going to the Chamber of Commerce was worth my time, whether or not having this podcast is worth my time, I would miss out on so many opportunities that have opened up as a result of me doing these things that I feel are necessary from a business sense.

The recession trims out those people that are looking at the bottom line. Those are the businesses that tend not to do so well in recessionary times. And the businesses that do do well, especially the ones that thrive out of a recession, are the ones that make those people to people encounters and really foster and develop those relationships.

 

Find out more about System 1 Interiors and Richard McKinnon

Go to www.system1interiors.com to contact Richie and find out more.

Quotes

  • “When I took over the business, for me, there was a lot of fear of the unknown. When I don’t have someone to go to, what is it going to be like when the training wheels come off?”
  • “We take pride in being the best. We’ll always strive for that.”
  • “Dealing with customers and dealing with employees and the different personalities and making that work and making it a positive thing. That’s the biggest struggle.”
  • “You’ve got to go, and you’ve got to do some things whether you like them or not sometimes because they could be very big opportunities.”
  • “I’ve always lived by the motto of just being real.”
  • “Don’t worry. Because it doesn’t improve anything in your life.”
  • “Just being a hard worker is successful in itself.”
  • “You’re going to be successful if you’re the best at what you do, or striving to be the best at what you do.”

richie

More from the Interview

How did System 1 Interiors get started?
In 1978 Richie’s father worked for a company that did acoustic ceiling spraying. He realized that if he had the right machinery and tools, he could start his own business and be able to raise and support a family. He knew he wasn’t the type to be answering to anyone, he wanted to be in charge of his own destiny. He got a loan from his father-in-law and began his business.

Richie grew up around his father’s business. He says, once he actually started working for his father he understood what it took. “It was very different: knowing what somebody does and then knowing what somebody does first-hand.” At the age of 20 he began working full-time with his dad. A few years later his dad was diagnosed with skin cancer. Richie decided he needed to get to know the business end of things as much as possible. He went with his dad to as many estimates and appointments, management things, as he could to see how things were done. When his father passed away Richie had already been mostly running the company for about a year and was able to get a lot of his questions answered.

He says, his father was the kind of person that no matter what, he would make something happen. “When I took over the business, for me, there was a lot of fear of the unknown. When I don’t have someone to go to. What is it going to be like when the training wheels come off?”

The Recession

“It was a complete blessing. It was business 101. It was a crash course. I really didn’t look at it then that way. I honestly get chills thinking about some of the things I had to go through, making decisions at such a young age. I was only 25 years old when I took over this company. We had, at the time, 7 employees. I had a lot of determination knowing that it really was sink or swim.”
Richie’s whole family was dependent on this business.

Richie says his business felt the impact of the economy on the decline before he heard about it in the news.
“I was grieving, at the time I had to put on that armor and lead this company through the troubled waters.” Having to explain to his long-time employees why there was no work while not really understanding why and trying to figure out how to fix it was difficult. In hindsight he realized that it’s nothing that they were doing wrong. It was difficult because a lot of the news wasn’t out he didn’t know how bad it was. “But the blessing about the economy dropping off for us, we’re a very very good business, we have a great reputation. I remember my father telling me before he passed, the one strength that you’re going to have and you’ll understand it one day, is that I’ve worked hard for 30 years of building this business to where it’s solid. No matter what you do, whether it’s advertising or things like that. We’ve built up a reputation… one day you’re going to see, when it gets busy again, just how much work was put into it.” He says, “Now I can understand that really what you put into your business, what you’re willing to put in, you will get it. So when you plant your seeds and you’re doing that hard work. A lot of times you don’t see the benefit, it comes later. A lot of times you can look back and say you know what, everything we did up to this point brought us through these lean times.”

The recession taught Richard to bear down and be a lean mean machine. They got a smaller shop, ordered less materials at a time, took away a lot of the things they didn’t actually need. If it wasn’t for the economy going down he says he would not have made those changes. Today System 1 would probably be wasting a lot of money, energy and resources, and not working as smart. “When you have an economic downturn, it’s really a reality check, and a time to go through everything and figure out what you need and don’t need. And then when the economy picks up all of a sudden you’re like a marathon runner, ready to go. … We’re better for it.”

I think a lot of our success has to do with the customer feeling comfortable and knowing exactly what they’re going to get and then where the success comes in is with executing that exactly as planned and exactly as you stated and if there is a hitch fixing it ASAP and making it right. That is the essence of what we try to do.

“My number one thing that I’ve learned is that clarity is key. Clarity is before you start anything with a customer you’re being crystal clear up front. In our business there are things that are unpreventable because of the nature of the business, explaining that to the customer ahead of time, so there’s not shock. Delivering exactly what you say you’re going to deliver. Knowing that it’s okay if somebody wants the impossible, to explain it, “That’s impossible.”

Biggest struggle
There are a lot of customers that are not capable of being pleased. Richie knows for certain they are the best company in southern California at what they do. “We’ve always known that we’re a very good company. We take pride in being the best. We’ll always strive for that.”

Dealing with customers and dealing with employees and the different personalities and making that work and making it a positive thing. That’s the biggest struggle.

Thriving out of the Recession

The last 3 years, his business has rebounded really well. The biggest asset to the company has been the internet. He says, the internet has separated the good companies from the bad companies. For the good companies, it makes them better. You don’t know who is going to put up reviews. We don’t have an on off switch where we do good work we do bad work. We only know how to do it well. If you can get a hundred reviews and 95 of them are straight A’s you’re going to get more business. At this point I’m not sure if the economy is as good as I believe it is, or if it’s a matter of since we’ve established ourselves as being a good company through our reviews that we’re just getting more work than others.

Advice

What’s the biggest piece of advice you learned from your dad?
Probably, never to give up on anything and to be there. It’s 4:30, it’s raining, there’s traffic and I get a call from a general contractor. He wants me to come to Malibu right now because a painting contractor didn’t show up. I really didn’t’ want to go; it’s going to take me an extra 3 hours to get home. But, I just had that advice, that you’ve got to go, and you’ve got to do some things whether you like them or not sometimes because they could be very big opportunities. It ended up being a job that probably saved our business back in 2008. I had no idea what it was, it ended up being a huge house for a Hollywood movie producer. It kept us busy for 2 or 3 months.

Be yourself. You don’t have to go and sell the jobs. You don’t have to put on a salesman pitch or face. Just go in there, be yourself and you’ll do fine. I’ve had to understand that I’m perfectly capable of doing this without having to try so hard on the sales pitch thing. Go in, be yourself and people will see though the fakes and phonies. I’ve always lived by the motto of just being real.

His advice to me was always just to be myself and to know that I’m perfectly capable of doing it.

What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone who found themselves running a business, like you did?
Don’t worry. Because it doesn’t improve anything in your life.
Don’t let the doubt and the worry […] freeze you from having a clear brain and execute what you need to do. You start looking at the bills you have coming in and the amount of work you have and it will freeze you up. One great thing about business is that you can bounce back and it doesn’t take very long to bounce back. Knowing that not only can you bounce back, but you will, and it doesn’t take long.
If you keep going, and you work hard, and you’re never gonna give up, and you keep going at it. Not only is it a probability that you’ll bounce back but you can even turn it into something more amazing than what you had before.

I’m constantly trying to figure out how to perfect the business. Constantly trying to think of creating new businesses.
I don’t like the thinking that everybody just needs a slice of the pie. Create your own pie. I’m constantly thinking about what else can I do. I feel I’m successful because I have a business mind and I have a mind to create.

 

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Episode 75: What Makes a Social Business | Michael Peshkam, Founder and CEO of Xincus

Michael Peshkam is the founder and CEO of Xincus. Xincus Michael Peshkam, founder of Xincus, a social business platform.gives businesses an opportunity to collaborate and communicate with each other on his platform and creates the opportunity to leverage social media. Michael talks about businesses and social media, noting that there is a difference between a business that uses social media and a business that is a social business.

Xincus is the first-of-its-kind online Social Marketplace for Business that makes the power of mass collaboration available to everyone by bringing together Experts, Businesses, and Enterprises to engage each other and create new business value and opportunities that they could not develop independently.

Zeb’s Take

Michael is extremely smart and knowledgeable. I really liked the correlations he made between the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and the implications of the power structure that is involved with each century and I agree with the direction he sees things going.

One of the things he brought up, that I want to touch on, is that there are businesses today that are using social media, and they think that’s being social, but it’s not. You need to incorporate social media into your business to create a social business. For example, The Tutoring Solution. I originally got started on Facebook and I wasn’t getting a lot of engagement. I racked my brain and came up with the idea to offer a scholarship. We call it the Share Your Passion Scholarship. To enter we ask students to write an essay to explain what they are passionate about, why they are passionate about it, and how they can use their passion to help others. Then we vote and choose the winner. We give the people on our Facebook the opportunity to vote and help us pick their favorite, and we encourage each of the students to get their friends on facebook to vote. We wouldn’t have started that scholarship if we weren’t thinking of ways to interact with our potential clients. Since then we’ve leveraged that scholarship into so many different areas. We have counselors at different schools recommending us, it makes more people aware of us, helps us get the word out, and then (most importantly) we’re just doing a really good cool service for kids that are passionate and excited.

Just doing social media in and of itself is not enough. In order to leverage social media and the potential of it, you need to make your business a social busienss where you are incorporating social media into the structure of your business. Michael had some great examples with Threadless, Sirius, and Nike to explain to become a true social business.

Find Out More About Xincus

Visit www.Xincus.com.

Xincus, The platform for Social Business

Quotes

  • “Once I am in a conversation with someone I am happiest when somebody takes away something from what I have said and also when I take away something from what the other person has said.”
  • “Right person, right know-how, right time and it can be a real game changer.”
  • Goal: “To help small/medium sized businesses to grow and thrive better, faster, cheaper and smarter.”
  • “It’s an opportunity to create an entrepreneurial society.”
  • “Having vision and idea is one thing, but having commitment and determination is quite another.”
  • “People want to contribute and be a part of something.”

michael-peshkam-quote

More from the Interview

Michael graduated in Europe, lived most of his life in Europe. Got a PHD studying aerospace and software engineering aka, rocket science. He worked in the UK for a fortune ten company. He has been fortunate enough to travel the world twice. In 1996 he hopped the pond and came over to the US where he became senior business IT executive and most recently an entrepreneur. He’s also been an associate professor teaching at university.

He’s worked in technology, education, business and now he’s an entrepreneur launching Xincus.

He says, Xincus is the next generation of social media known as social business. The migration from social networking to social media and now to social business. Essentially social business, in a nut shell, is creating business advantage through social technologies. You take the social media (your likes, friends, followers and so on) throw them in an environment which is specifically designed for your business and leverage the tools and technologies to create business advantage for you, whatever that business advantage may be. We’ve designed a platform to allow small and medium sized businesses to have internal collaboration just like bigger corporations and, in addition, it also has a marketplace where they can have better integration with their partners, customers and crowd. For SMBs to do what the larger organizations can do, plus they now have a marketplace like Ebay or Amazon. You can also integrate with other business owners to bring together: collaborate, create new knowledge, new know-how, new products & services and innovate things that would be better, faster and cheaper than if you were to do it on your own.Xincus, Social Business Platform

Social Business Examples

Threadless wanted to make T-shirts. Rather than go and design the shirts themselves, they created their own internal social business platform and invited designers to come and suggest designs. They managed to bring in the crowd, give them the opportunity to design, at the same time have the crowd select their favorite designs, then Threadless goes ahead and prints and sells T-shirts with the chosen designs. They created an integration of social media tools to bring the crowd into their own social business platform to create a business advantage.

Sirius Satellite Radio is one of the first examples of a social business. One of their channels, the least popular, was brainstorming how they could get more listeners. The executive suggested allowing customers come in and program their own playlists. After a while that channel became the most popular.

Traditionally Cimex would have brought in various consultants to over 200 locations around the world, complete a study, and go on to develop their alternative energy for their plants. But through use of social technologies internally, this time they linked their engineers into communities, sort of pilot social networks, and were able to accomplish the same thing within 6 weeks rather than 2 years.

On Entreprenureship

Many people have ideas, many people have visions, but they start half way through and they just give it up. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint hearted.

Advice

You can think along two different lines: social media or social business. Social media, all the channels and tools available are fantastic and excellent for promotion, communication, advertising, and reaching out to the masses. But liking is not leading. Just because a business is on Facebook or LinkedIn does not make them a social business. You need to transform those likes and followers into leads where you can leverage them; give them something in return to help you accomplish more. Business owners these days have the entire world open to them.

Pondering Success

If they were asked to define success:
Mother Teresa, perhaps she would say, “I don’t want to see a single hungry child in the world.”
Albert Einstein‘s idea of success might be “I want to have one simple equation that would define the entire universe, the galaxies, the planetary rotations and so forth.”

To find out more about Michael Peshkam and Xincus, visit Xincus.com.

 

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Episode 73: Connect with Influential People | John Corcoran, Host of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast

John Corcoran knows how to connect with influential people.  He has worked in the White House, he has met presidents, he has his own law firm, there are so many different things this guy has done. He’s great at networking with very important people, he has lots of tips and information on how we can network better.

John's talent of building business relationships with VIPs including presidents and important decision makers has helped him define success.

John Corcoran shows entrepreneurs and small business owners how to bring in more clients, customers and revenue by building relationships with VIPs and top performers.  He’s also the host of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.

Smart Business Revolution Podcast - Turn Your Relationships Into Income

Zeb’s Take

In this interview I found I had a lot in common with John. Especially, the similar outlook that we both have on life. What stuck out to me was the task that he encourages people to tackle. He said sit down and create a list of people that you want to get to know better in the next few months. Assignment: Today take the time to sit down and write a list of 20 people that you want to get to know better in the next three months. It could be people in your field, politicians, people locally, maybe potential customers. Then, work on ways to introduce yourself to those people. I’ve never done this before, but I already know that this would provide value for my business. It’s something that I kind of do already with this podcast. The Defining Success Podcast is a perfect example of how I used John’s strategies to connect with influential people. It started as a way to build connections. It gave me a reason to reach out to these people. Then I can get to know them better, they get to know me better, and our world’s collide during the interview. Afterwards, this person knows me. We have the potential to connect again down the line to help each other in business. I’ve made some fantastic contacts and met some wonderful and helpful people. I want to connect with all of our listeners and hear what you have to say about this assignment and this idea. Connect with me, go to Facebook.com/DefiningSuccesPodcast and let me know what you think.

Free Ebook from John Corcoran

Download John Corcoran’s ebook at this exclusive link for Defining Success Podcast listeners: SmartBusinessRevolution.com/DefiningSuccess

Quotes

  • “You are what others perceive you to be […] If you act like you belong, you can often belong.”
  • “The key thing is keeping in touch with people who are going to help your career go in the direction that you want it to go.”
  • “Think proactively about the people that you do want to surround yourself with.”
  • “When you have a strength, it’s not you who sees it. It’s others who see it.”
  • “As a business owner nothing tops the satisfaction of a job well done for one of your clients.“
  • “Success is not on anyone else’s terms. It’s your own choice. You define what success is.”

John Corcoran shows entrepreneurs and small business owners how to bring in more income and clients by building real human relationships with influencers, VIPs, and people who matter.

More from the Interview

John Corcoran’s career path has taken him all over. He’s gone from DC to Silicon Valley and he’s worked with people from DreamWorks and Hollywood to Bill Clinton and his staff. Eventually he founded his own boutique law firm where he works with a lot of startups and small business owners. All these different positions came from the relationships he developed and how he was able to gain opportunities through those relationships when it came to his career path. One of John’s first jobs was at a brand new company at the time, DreamWorks. He was exposed to VIPs and often was around celebrities. There he learned that in Hollywood you are what others perceive you to be. If you act like you belong, you will belong. In college, Corcoran was part of the White House Internship Program where he got to work in the White House speech writing office. As he finished his degree he set his sights on getting a job in that same office. He kept in touch with the people he met during his internship and from one of them heard about a position with the speechwriters and was hired at the White House for first big major job after college. He says, the key thing is keeping in touch with people who are going to help your career go in the direction that you want it to go. And often times people don’t think about these things. Our network often comes more by happenstance rather than by thinking proactively about what direction you want your career to go, who are the people that can help you get to that point, and who are the people that can motivate you to get there. John was unaware of his talent for developing relationships and building his network until it was reiterated to him several times by other members of a mastermind group he participated in. He had written blogs before, but not until he changed direction did he find the reaction he was looking for. John writes about something that comes so naturally to him, nurturing relationships with people. Much of what he shares involves using social media tools to establish and build your network in a positive way. Broaden your circle of influence. Be helpful to the people you reach out to. Don’t wait to be successful in order to implement things right now. Doing it right now, implementing the tools now can help you become successful. Cool Experience: You often see when you’re around someone like the leader of the free world, they have this magnetic charisma and it can be very intimidating. It can be very difficult to approach that person. First, everyone appreciates a sincere compliment. Have a human conversation with someone, that’s a great way to break through and have a really normal connection with someone no matter how successful they are. When meeting President Clinton, John knew that the president was building his DVD collection, so he brought him a few old westerns on DVD. He said, they were able to connect and it was the most normal conversation you could be having with someone, except it was in the Oval Office of the White House with the leader of the free world. Advice: No matter who you are talking to, no matter who you want to meet, find a way to connect with them on something personal and something that they are interested in, and make a connection on that in whatever way possible. That will serve you well. Insight: Working at the white house was a tremendous honor and a privilege, but I was missing that immediate feedback and sense of gratification that you get from a personal job well done. As a business owner nothing tops the satisfaction of just a job well done for one of your clients.

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Episode 71: Overcoming Career Disaster | Melissa Krivachek from Briella Arion

Melissa Krivachek has had lots of ups and downs in her professional career. At a young age she was promoted quickly at the retail store she worked for, but when the recession hit, she lost her job. During that time she became homeless and even spent some time in jail. She rebounded nicely by creating her own business, Briella Arion, which she is running today. Learn how Melissa worked toward overcoming career disaster in episode 71 of the Defining Success Podcast.

Melissa Krivachek Owner of Briella Arion Author of Be Ballsy on the Defining Success Podcast with Zeb Welborn

Melissa Krivachek

Melissa Krivachek is the President of Briella Arion. She has been captivating, inspiring and motivating entrepreneurs across the globe since her early twenties. Chosen as Evolution Magazines 2013 Top Power Player Under 40, and featured on CNN, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, and receiving dozens of other accolades, Melissa’s passion for personal growth resonates with audiences looking for more fulfillment in all aspects of life and business. As the Author of Be Ballsy! How Not To Suck At Love, Success, & Happiness she loves teaching audiences how to break-thru limiting beliefs so they can have it all.

Briella Arion is a coaching company that works with six figure entrepreneurs so they can breakthrough the ceiling of complexity and have it all, all at the same time, love, success and happiness. Melissa has been with a six-figure salary and jobless.

In 2004, Melissa started at Walmart at 16 and the manager mentored her along the way. She exceeded his role in the company and became the store manager and in 2008, she was fired. Melissa bought a brand new car, a new home and eventually they took her car, her came and was $50,000 in debt.

She then began working for Family Dollar and Melissa got bored fairly easily and moved to Chicago where she began managing multiple stores. From 2004 to 2011 Melissa racked up a bunch of speeding tickets and ended up going to jail.

Melissa gravitated towards anything related to professional management. Melissa’s first client was a customer who was trying to get Melissa to sell her Visalis. He was having a really difficult time and she began coaching him. He’s a very passionate person, became a millionaire and is now doing extremely well.

Melissa’s Mastermind is a five-week program that holds people accountable to help you hit your goals. She does the program on Facebook so that you have accountability built into it.

Through her coaching Melissa tries to remove limiting beliefs from people to help them break through to more success.

Be Ballsy, written by Melissa Krivachek, focuses on helping people balance love, success and happiness and she has been able to maintain it.

Matt Lee was the first guest Melissa Krivachek had on her show. He’s actually the coach for Melissa and has helped her achieve phenomenal success.

The best thing Melissa is doing right now is working with lots of successful entrepreneurs and coaching them break through their limiting beliefs.

Melissa Krivachek Be Ballsy Overcoming Career Disaster

Melissa Krivachek

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • Have you ever had to work at overcoming career disaster?

Success Quotes:

  • “Success is about the impact that you make, the money that you make and how clear your message is to the audience you’re reaching.”
  • “It’s more important to take small consistent action than it is to reach goals.”
  • “If your values and beliefs aren’t aligned with your values and results than you have a problem.”

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Briella Arion – I coach 6 figure entrepreneurs across the globe from my home in Marion, Iowa.
Be a Baller Melissa Krivachek

Be a Baller

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Episode 70: Don’t Let Your Ego Get in the Way | Virgil Herring Author of The Golf Journal

Don’t let your ego get in the way.  Virgil Herring is one of the top teaching professionals in golf and when one of his best players, Brandt Snedeker became the PGA Tour’s Rookie of the Year, Virgil expected recognition.  Brandt recognized another golf coach for his success and Virgil’s ego got in the way.  Learn from Virgil in Episode 70 of the Defining Success Podcast.

Virgil Herring Don't Let Your Ego Get in the Way

Virgil Herring

Best-selling author Virgil Herring is Director of Instruction at the acclaimed Westhaven Golf Club and is founder of Higher Performance Golf Academy. Virgil received the 2003 Tennessee Section PGA Teacher of the Year Award and was named 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2006 Middle TN Chapter PGA Teacher of the Year. He was named a 2009 U.S. Kids Golf Top 50 Instructor (source) by U.S. Kids Golf. And he also worked with PGA Tour player Brandt Snedeker.

Virgil got involved in golf after he injured his shoulder as a baseball pitcher at 16 years old.  He then turned to golf.  Virgil took up the sport by playing with his best friend at a young age. He knew that he wanted to be involved in sports in his entire life.

He went to college to learn how to become a part of golf management.  Today, he plays as much as he possibly can, but he became an instructor at an early age.  His first 1,000 hours of golf instruction were working with over-achieving collegiate golfers.  Everyone who worked with him told him that he had a knack for teaching.

Virgil likes to help others.  When he’s competing he’s too concerned about other people’s games.  He says he’s coached about 22,000 golf lessons, and coached 1,500 to 1,600 people.

The most compelling story Virgil has working with students was a young female golfer who Virgil took from a golfer who was quitting and three months later, she became a professional golfer.  And now, Megan Grehan is now a professional golfer.

Brandt Snedeker was another student of Virgil Herring’s who went on to do great things in golf.  Virgil was Brandt’s golf instructor for eight years where he went from an unranked junior, to the #1 player in college golf, to the #1 amateur in the world, to a two-time Nationwide Tour Winner, to the PGA Rookie of the Year.  He won the US Public Links and made the cut in the Masters as an amateur.

Brandt was never the best hitter of the golf ball, but he always ended up winning.  Virgil remembers the first time playing with him and one thing that Brandt had was confidence.  He knew how to hit the shot when he needed to hit it. Virgil has taught more than 20 people who hit the golf ball better than Brandt, but he’s been the best putter 3 out of the last 5 years.

When Virgil began teaching golf, he was a big believer in getting people to perform their best.  He saw the little differences between the average golfers and the exceptional golfers.  Virgil knew he wanted to be a competitive golf coach and his brand was helping golfers achieve their personal greatness.

When Brandt won his PGA Tour Event in 2007, he went on national TV and thanked another teacher.  Virgil reacted in disbelief and shock.  And they didn’t handle the situation very well and Virgil wish it hadn’t had bothered him as much as it did. They’re both members of the same club, but their relationship is nothing like what it used to be.

Virgil wrote The Golf Journal and Virgil believes this is the year for statistical data to help people track their statistics to help people understand what they need to do to get better.  His book helps people understand their golfing trends and how they can make those trends better. Golf teaches honesty, and integrity.

Virgil likes the creativity of golf.  There are a lot of different golf swings out there.  Golf is a long contest that trains focus, concentration and how to re-focus.

Another story Virgil re-tells is the time when Brandt asked Davis Love III about how he could stay on the tour and Davis told him that if he thought he should be out on the PGA Tour than he shouldn’t worry about it.  The guys who can miss a cut are ok, but those who treat it as life and death are in trouble.

The Golf Journal by Virgil Herring

The Golf Journal

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • Name a time when your ego got in the way?
  • Have you ever worked with someone who was a world-class athlete or business person?  What traits did they possess that others did not?

Success Quotes:

  • “Success is choosing what you’re life’s mission is and chasing after it with all of your zest.”
  • “Golf mirrors life … how you handle adversity on the golf course shows how you handle adversity in live.
  • “There’s no such think as perfect.”
  • “When your ego gets in the way, sometimes bad things happen.”
  • “I get the chance to do exactly what I wanted to do since I was 21 years old and I get to do it every day.”
  • “Brandt Snedeker has a killer instinct that most people don’t have.”

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Virgil Herring – Virgil worked with PGA Tour player Brandt Snedeker from 2000-2007 and Tour players Harry Taylor, Brad Fabel, Cliff Kresge, Vance Veazey, Garrett Willis, Bob Wolcott & Kim Williams. He works with 52 Division-1 College Players and 22 top TN Junior Players. In Nashville, hear Virgil 7-8 a.m. Saturday on 104.5 The Zone.
Virgil Herring on not letting your ego get in the way

Virgil Herring

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Episode 69: Evaluate Every Decision | Griffen Halko from Stay Designated

As a DUI offender, Griffen Halko made a mistake that changed his life forever.  In Episode 69 of the Defining Success Podcast, we discuss how important it is to evaluate every decision.  Griffen’s decision resulted in the death of a good friend, sent him to jail and forever changed his future.

Griffin Halko Stay Designated Evaluate Every Decision

Griffen Halko

Stay Designated, Inc. was conceptualized in March of 2008, in a hospital bed located in the Intensive Care Unit at UCI Medical Center. While recovering from critical, life threatening injuries, Griffen Halko came face to face with reality.

Before the accident in March 2008, Griffen was working locally in Chino Hills an Diamond Bar.  And, he was frequently involved in the night life scene, visiting bars. In March of 2008, Griffen had a night out with a good friend, Eric and his girlfriend at the time.  They had a couple of drinks and Griffen drove home and his car was hit by a vehicle in Grand.  Eric was killed in the crash.  Griffen was transported to UCI Medical Center were he sustained serious injuries and was in a coma.  Doctor’s believed he wouldn’t be able to walk.  He came out of the coma and became healthy.

Griffen was charged with vehicular manslaughter, two counts of felony DUI and an enhancement with driving above a .15 BAC.  While he was laying in his hospital bed, he decided he was going to take this opportunity to educate others about the danger of drinking and driving.  He pled out to a felony DUI and started Stay Designated. Both the victim and the perpetrator struggle.

Griffen hopes to educate others so events like these don’t happen again. As a young man, Griffen identifies as an addict, but he does not identify as an alcoholic, but he does make poor decisions while drinking alcohol. Stay Designated has a few different programs.  Griffen does a lot of mentoring and a lot of coaching with people who have substance abuse problems.

Stay Designated has a three-tier mission. The first is to educate others about the effects of alcohol and drug use.  The second is victim advocacy for those affected and for perpetrators.  The third tier, and the most important is to get hands-on in the community to create a designated driver program.

Chances for change brings an individual who fails a drug test at school or work they need to complete an out patient program.  They work hands on with a treatment specialist.  They have a bunch of courses they need to attend and once their course work is done they can go back to school or work.

Stay Designated is very new.  They have weekly marketing meetings and they start working the streets.  They work with attorneys, schools, the city, Psychology Today and the Yellow Pages.  They also try to work in the community as much as possible. There have been individuals that Griffen has worked with who have achieved clean time and have been able to get their lives back together.

Six years after Griffen’s accident, but this year Griffen was granted an expungement by the courts that put an exclamation point on his success story. One of the most difficult things that Griffen has encountered is that Griffen is looked at as an offender.  When Griffen started this program he had no idea what it would become and it has expanded greatly since then. Getting off the ground was probably the hardest thing for Griffen to do.

Stay Designated Griffen Halko Defining Success Podcast Zeb Welbon

Stay Designated

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • What’s a bad decision you have made that you wish you could take back?
  • How important do you think it is to evaluate every decision?

Success Quotes:

  • “When you’re getting in a vehicle, make sure you haven’t been drinking.”
  • “Think before you act.”
  • “If you have the emotional support and the drive, you can get it done.”
  • “If you can go to sleep at night and rest easy and have a good heart than you are successful.”

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Stay Designated – “To offer support to those struggling with alcohol as well as other substance abuses and destructive behaviors. With a focus on reducing driving under the influence injuries and fatalities, intoxicated driving, underage drinking, and drug abuse, we strive to offer education and other means of prevention, promote victim advocacy, as well as assist those both directly and indirectly affected. Ultimately, we aim to achieve positive rehabilitation for all parties involved.”
Griffen Halko Evaluate Every Decision

Griffen Halko

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Episode 68: The Social Golf Course Part 1

The Social Golf Course was written by Zeb Welborn and John Hakim.

The Social Golf Course by Zeb Welborn and John Hakim

The Social Golf Course

In Episode 68 of the Defining Success Podcast we go through our book chapter by chapter and discuss the ideas presented in the book.  At the end of each chapter we present a question in our book, which we encourage readers to engage with on our website, SocialGolfCourse.com.

In Part 1, we discuss Chapters 1 – 8.

Chapter 1: The Death of the Traditional Golf Course. When I think of the glory days of golf, I think back to the time my grandfather played the game as the men’s club president at his local golf course.  The times have changed and we must think about the game differently. The local golf course must take the responsibility for developing and enhancing their local communities — online and offline.

Question: When were the glory days of golf?

Chapter 2: An Industry in the Rough Golf has been in decline since 2005.  It’s been a scary time in the golf course industry with more courses closing than opening and the outlook doesn’t look pretty.  Golf courses need to take a much more active role in promoting the game.

What is the biggest problem facing golf today?  How can we fix it?

Chapter 3: The St. Andrews Model St. Andrews is the undisputed home of golf, but it is not by luck.  St. Andrews marketed themselves and their golf course to the world which has made St. Andrews the most recognizable golf course in golf.  The most important thing golf courses can do is to market their golf course effectively.

What are some interesting ways you’ve seen golf courses market themselves? How do/would you market your golf course?

Chapter 4: The Mulligan Tee time wholesalers have been detrimental to the golf course industry.  Social media has created an opportunity for local golf courses to eliminate the need for tee time wholesalers and create a strong personal brand for themselves.

Are tee time wholesalers good or bad for the golf course industry?

Chapter 5: Golf is a Social Game Golf is a social game.  It’s a no brainer that social media and golf go together.

What makes golf special?

Chapter 6: Marketing in Today’s Economy Effective marketing methods change all the time.  Right now, social media is outperforming all other forms of advertising methods.  We all must learn how to market effectively as technology is changing the way we live and the way we consume information.

What is the future of marketing in the golf course industry?

Chapter 7: The Golf Niche Golfers are really easy to reach through social media.  Targeting features on different social media platforms offer a great opportunity to connect with your target market.

Who is your ideal customer? How can you get them?

Chapter 8: How Being Social Can Increase Profits at Your Course The big question is, how can social media make money for your golf course.  In this chapter we go in detail about how social media works and how you can profit from using social media at your golf course.

How has social media impacted your relationship with your customers?

Part 2 will complete our discussion on The Social Golf Course.

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Episode 67: The Learning Experience | Fred Shoemaker from Extraordinary Golf

In Episode 67 of the Defining Success Podcast, Fred discusses what he’s learned teaching golf and how people tend to learn best and enjoy the experience when they are allowed to learn for themselves.  As a coach, Fred avoids passing judgement and simply guides his students to be more aware of their experience during the process.  Learn how Fred Shoemaker cultivates the best learning experience.

Fred Shoemaker Extraordinary Golf The Learning Experience

Fred Shoemaker

Fred Shoemaker is the founder of Extraordinary Golf which provides an environment where golfers could know their remarkable ability and learn to unfold it moment to moment.  The school has been named One of America’s Top 25 Golf Schools in America by Golf Magazine and has been a life-changing experience for many participants.

Fred has spent most of his career—over 42,000 lessons, and thousands of golf schools and workshops—helping people overcome the obstacles that prevent them from discovering and expressing their potential.

Fred fell in love with golf at an early age and at some point he realized that there was a lot more to the game than just the golf swing.  He was a coach at UCSB in 1975 and has been involved in the game for a long time.

Fred’s Dad was in the military and they were stationed in Guam at an early age and he began visiting the golf course regularly where he fell in love with it.  Fred was not fascinated in playing golf professionally, but he became fascinated with coaching the sport.

Sometimes golfers need to look at what they do before and after they get on the golf course to help improve their game.

Fred knows that his first ready-made answers don’t help people.  Letting people experience the learning process is the real key to success in learning and education.  Since 1950 human beings are not getting better at golf. The learning experience is a key component to learning and happiness.

Anybody who has developed anything has gone through a lot of failures along the way.

Extraordinary golf focuses on the individual and works with each golfer individually.  Extraordinary golf helps to capture people when they do something that is extraordinary.  The basis of extraordinary golf is awareness.  Human beings are capable of accomplishing anything as long as they are aware.

Transformations are difficult.  Fred has been a part of some remarkable transformations and to watch people undergo those transformations is profound.  Fred has been able to change the way golfers think about their swing and how they respond to positive and negative thoughts.  Through that he has witnessed many transformations.

Golf is a game where you can keep improving well into your seventies. We have a sport that can teach us something about life if we choose to learn from it.

One of the biggest mistakes Fred feels he has made is not acknowledging the people who have had an impact on his life.  The connectivity of all of us is undeniable and he feels like he’s a link in a chain and he intends to be the strongest link in the chain he can be.

There are some people who have chosen a purpose to play golf and for those people who have found a reason to play golf that makes sense . . . they have won the game.

Fred Shoemaker from Extraordinary Golf Talking About the Learning Experience

Fred Shoemaker

Discussion Questions:

  • Would you like a life of endless interest or endless boredom?

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Extraordinary Golf – “Extraordinary Golf challenges the cultural views on learning. We’ve come to see that golfers are far more able than they believe. But, they haven’t learned to develop–or access– what they have.”

Success Quotes:

  • “Success is to be up for something bigger than what your life is about . . . to have a cause that’s worth giving your life to.”
  • “There is no such thing as a bad day in gratitude and appreciation.”
  • “Really successful people always interpret the world in a way that empowers them.”
  • “How we interpret life . . . is what changes our world.”
  • “When one changes one’s language you actually physically change your body.”
  • “If you rob people of their failures, you rob them of their future.”
  • “The golf swing is the most analyzed human motion in recorded history.”
  • “Sometimes the questions make the difference and not the answers.”
  • “The way we do one thing is the way we do other things.”

Visit the website for our new book, The Social Golf Course.

Extraordinary Golf by Fred Shoemaker

Extraordinary Golf by Fred Shoemaker

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Episode 66: Incorporate Mobile Marketing Into Your Business | Greg Hickman Host of Mobile Mixed

The host of Mobile Mixed, Greg Hickman shares his insights into mobile marketing and how business owners must start to incorporate mobile strategies into their internet marketing campaign. Learn from the best when it comes to developing your mobile marketing strategy in Episode 66 of the Defining Success Podcast.

Greg Hickman Mobile Mixed Podcast Marketing

Greg Hickman

Greg Hickman is the Creator/Host of Mobile Mixed. He is a Mobile Marketing Consultant focused on retail.  He is the Co-Founder of Thumbfound, Entrepreneur & Mountain Biker.  He started off as an agency guy having the opportunity to work on brands like Pepsi, Lipton, and Walmart, creating and managing digital, in-store and grassroots initiatives.

Out of college, Greg started at an agency doing project management for a company that represented Pepsi so he got a full grasp on all aspects of marketing.  His supervisor left his position and he pulled Greg over to help him at this new business in 2005.  The company would make ring tones and wall papers for professional sports teams and he was able to see how engaged people were from their phone.  When the iPhone came out, he knew the world was going to change and he knew that was where he wanted to be.

MobileMixed.com started in June 2012 while he was working with a company that represented 300 shopping centers around the country.  He didn’t have any role models so he wanted to reach out to people who were doing mobile marketing really well and he started to reach out to them for his podcast show.  He realized there was an audience following behind his show and he shifted his show from being interviews to solo episodes as well.

Through the podcast, Greg has developed relationships with a lot of the guests that have been on the show.  He’s been able to find mentors and through his podcast he got offered a job at a business leading the mobile strategy of a large brand.  Through the podcast, they found Greg and it was really an opportunity to work with those guys.  Greg was able to work for the big brand for a year, but things kept growing with Mobile Mixed and although he enjoyed working for a big brand, he enjoyed growing his own business more.

Because of his podcast a big brand found him.  When he stopped focusing on trying to work for a big brand and when he tried to make it a resource for mobile people, other people saw it.  Since he started the podcast it’s been a great tool to land speaking gigs to share his knowledge about how to incorporate mobile marketing into your business.

Greg will be speaking at New Media Expo, Social Media Marketing World, Mobile Marketing Strategy Summit and the National Podcasters Conference.

By 2015 more people will access the internet on their phone than on their computer.  More than 50% of all emails are opened on a mobile phone.  70% of Facebook users access their content from a mobile phone. 40% of global YouTube views are on a mobile phone.  61% of podcasts are listened to from a mobile phone.

To get started on mobile, make sure your website is mobile-friendly meaning you can use responsive design.  You can also create a mobile optimized site.

50% of all email is opened on a mobile phone so you need to make sure your email is presentable on a mobile phone.  The mobile phone has become a filtering device to even let emails into our inbox.  Knowing that your customer is doing these things on their mobile phone, how does that impact them. Web to lead marketing is extremely important to businesses to ensure they sell products, if you want to find out more about how this can impact your business, visit https://www.salesforce.com/products/guide/lead-gen/web-to-lead/

Greg says the best mobile marketing company is Starbucks.  They do the advanced stuff and they do the basic stuff and they always think about the full experience.  They think everything through from start to finish.

One of the things Greg is using now is MMS which is muli-media messaging service.  It’s text messaging with picture and video.  In Greg’s podcast, he will have a text call to action.  Through the messaging a person could record their question and they get a quick video in response to their question.

SMS messages have a 99% open rate and 90% of text messages are opened in less than 3 minutes.  The average open rate for emails is 20 – 22%.  You get a much higher open and click-through rate through text messages.

It’s just as easy to sign up on a text message list as it is to an email list.

If you realize that your website is not mobile friendly you should listen to Episode 49 of the Mobile Mixed Podcast titled, 6 Ways to Make Your Website Mobile Friendly, Episode 51: Email: The Most Overlooked Mobile Tool and 9 Tips to Get Started, Episode 65: 17 Mobile Marketing Mistakes You Want to Avoid.

Greg Hickman Mobile Mixed Podcast Mobile Marketing

Greg Hickman

Engaging Discussion Questions:

  • How important is having a mobile strategy in today’s economy?
  • Do you think mobile marketing can be done independently of a traditional marketing campaign?
  • What questions do you have about mobile marketing?

Success Quotes:

  • “Make sure that your definition is something that you own and is not based on someone else’s accomplishments.”
  • “Success means being happy every day, being vulnerable and not being worried about what other people think.”
  • “Your business objective is to sell more stuff.  You need to think how can mobile help you cell more stuff.”
  • “How do I get my customer to do all these things I want them to do as easy as possible wherever they are at.”
  • “Responsive design is a great way to make sure your site is presentable on multiple devices.”
  • “74% of consumers will only wait three seconds for a website to load on their mobile phone before abandoning that site.”
  • “Starting the blog and the podcast were the best things I’ve ever done.”

Links to Great Stuff:

  • Mobile Mixed – Mobile Mixed is more than a web show, blog, resource and community of awesome mobile marketers (which it is of course)… Mobile Mixed is a freakin’ mission.
  • New Media Expo –
  • Social Media Marketing World – You’ll rub shoulders with the biggest names and brands in social media, soak up countless tips and new strategies, andenjoy extensive networking opportunities in San Diego, California.
  • Mobile Marketing Strategy Summit – GSMI is a leader in the industry of executive education, global conferences, summits, and training sessions that combine rich learning environments with the opportunity to network with today’s most relevant thought leaders, speakers and practitioners. GSMI’s annual events have reached 85% of the Fortune 500 companies, in over 30 countries, and cover topics that today’s leaders find most challenging and inspiring.
  • Podcast Movement: National Podcasters Conference – For podcasters, by podcasters. Come together for a weekend of learning, lessons, and living life. For podcasters of all skill levels!
Greg Hickman from the Mobile Mixed Podcast

Greg Hickman

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Episode 65: Creating an Online Community with Zeb Welborn

Creating an online community is no easy task.  The key ingredient toward building an online community of people who take action is consistency, persistence and greatness.

Online Community, Online Golfing Community, Bunkers Paradise

Bunkers Paradise

I came into contact with Bunker’s Paradise while working for Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills, CA.  Bunker’s Paradise is an online golfing community where they talk about anything and everything golf.  Mostly they focus on reviewing golf clubs and golf equipment, but they’ve created a great golfing community here in Southern California.  The key to creating a vibrant golfing community online is creating good, quality content according to Ken Lee, the Editor-in-Chief at Bunker’s Paradise.  Ken is a full-time police officer, yet in his free time he’s been able to build this online community of golfers.  If you’re a small business, work to build a community like Ken Lee’s Bunker’s Paradise.

Greenskeeper.org Online Community Online Golfing Community

Greenskeeper.org

Greenskeeper.org is another great golfing community in Southern California.  Greenskeeper.org started as a website to notify golfers when golf courses were performing aeration.  The community has expanded substantially since it began more than 10 years ago and is working to make the golfing experience more enjoyable for golfers.  The owner, John Hakim said that whenever he invested in his community he’s seen rewards come from it and he works hard to be of service to his GK’ers.  By creating a vibrant golfing community which now regularly rates and reviews golf courses he’s been able to create a community of 60,000 golfers here in Southern California.  He routinely holds golf outings and gets his golfers involved.  In fact, we’ll be having a golf outing this week on March 14 at Los Serranos Country Club in Chino Hills, CA.  All are welcome!  Contact Zeb Welborn at Zeb@WelbornSocialMedia.com

Scrapbook Expo Online Community

Scrapbook Expo

Scrapbook Expo is another great company that has been able to build an online community which have helped them increase sales for their business.  They started by developing an extremely active Facebook presence, now with more than 120,000 Facebook followers.  These followers are very active online and contribute regularly to the Scrapbook Expo Facebook page and in turn, build massive word of mouth exposure for the events Scrapbook Expo holds all over the country.  Look to Scrapbook Expo if you’d like to build a strong online community. Creating an online community is no easy task.  Many who set out to achieve that goal quickly realize the amount of work it takes to establish and develop an online presence and quit.  To develop a strong online community it takes consistency and persistence.  Develop a loyal customer base and have those loyal customers promote and build your brand online and you’ll be well on your way to developing a strong social media presence.

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